After several months of pursuing the whereabouts of "Viodentia," Microsoft has submitted a Notice of Dismissal, removing all claims against "Viodentia." The reason for the dismissal was due to the fact that Microsoft was unable to locate "Viodentia" for prosecution.

The software giant went after FairUse4WM and "Viodentia" claiming that the creator of the tool had infringed on copyright laws. According to the dimissal, Microsoft said:

Please take notice that plaintiff Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft") respectfully dismisses all of its claims, without prejudice, against John Does 1-10 a/k/a "viodentia." Microsoft was unable to locate these defendants through discovery and therefore could not serve them with process.

quote: You and I may dislike DRM, RIAA, DCMA, etc., but breaking copyright laws doesn't solve anything. Withholding purchase - now that has the power to change the market.

Those who pirate aren't buying so it has the same effect as not purchasing. Also, right and wrong have nothing to do with law, they are just moral concepts. It seems to me that the majority is of the opinion that piracy is not wrong, and if the world was more democratic the laws would reflect this.

i think the difference is mainly is the fact that it's not physical stuff your "stealing". you cant even steal it. to use the car thief example, a car thief jumps in a car, drives away thus taking that car from you as his own. now, if this thief was a software pirate, he would have jumped in the car, driven off, the car would have cloned itself on the fly and after a time the "thief" drives off in the car, leaving the exact same car in the exact same spot. he just didn't pay money to the previous owner of the car, which isn't him since he owns a duplicate but would be ford if he stole a ford and so on.

that is where the problem lies, we have no moral ethics on cloning something that wasn't even solid in the first place. it isn't stealing, as you aren't taking anything away, you're duplicating something. would i steal if i could walk into a store, take anything i want then walk out with that stuff, while it has never left the shelf? probably not since its still taking something physical (and you can get caught easyer), but it would eliminate a whole scale of ethical problems which cause that "probably" to be there in the first place. guess it all depends how much you think something you cannot toutch and hardly influence is worth.